Experimental: TV/Movie deep-links via imported .strmlnk files

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#39

You know when I imported your entire repo, a couple of them were tv shows and they actually showed up as all seasons and episodes like you would expect for native library files. I didn't make a note of which ones they were but the point is that if tv shows was implemented, Channels isn't just throwing you to the tv show page on the app but you can select (hopefully) the episode which makes it much more useable.

Another thing I ran into was regional content differences, quite a few Netflix items weren't available in my region:> just the caveats

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#40

The files are scraped the same way local files are, by their file name.

#41

I think this has been posted before but I can’t find it. How do insert metadata when no match is found. For example, Frozen II & Ghettysburg.

#42

After some playing around I found that the following format also works for Itunes movies, albeit it opens the Itunes Movie App rather than the Apple TV app. Not a big issue for me.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/about-a-boy/id280781993?uo=4

Apple provides a web service, which if queried with a movie name returns a JSON file that includes the above URL. i.e.

https://itunes.apple.com/search?term="About a Boy"&entity=movie&releaseYearTerm=2003&limit=1

I'm not a programmer, but I'm OK with spreadsheets so I was able to create a Google Sheet which, using a custom JSON Import script I found online, was able to call the web service for a movie within my collection and return the iTunes URL. I then had a column within the Google Sheets which populated the echo script to add the .strmlnk file. In all, it took me around 30 minutes to import my 500 iTunes movies into Channels.

It's probably quite crude, but it worked for me as a one-off exercise. I've provided my GSheet below, which you can take a copy of, if you want to try it out - there are some caveats which are listed below.

Resources:

Apple Documentation on web service
https://affiliate.itunes.apple.com/resources/documentation/itunes-store-web-service-search-api/
Custom ImportJSON.gs
https://github.com/bradjasper/ImportJSON

First, export your iTunes collection by navigating to Films in Itunes, switching view to grid and selecting the Name and Release Year column. Paste into GSheet.

Column E URL from JSON will populate with Itunes Links

If #Error is shown, I found this means that the process took too long. If you delete the formula, wait a second then drag the formula down from the cell above it will find it ok.
If #Ref is shown, this means that no results were returned. This was generally the case where the film name contained (Unrated) or (Extended Edition) etc. If you alter the name it usually finds it, the only movie I couldnt find was Holiday Inn for some reason.

Other words of warning, remove special characters like "?" from file names as this causes the echo script to fail. I think the US store URL is returned as default, you may need to update the Query URL formula to include the Store attribute if you have movies elsewhere (see Apples documentation)

Hope it helps some of you.

Link to Google Sheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Kcj3T05FWlMnnoRAXGMu5s4BeyXgjyaXDQqVJkJZ-nc/edit?usp=sharing

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#43

FYI, I have enabled this for TV as well if anyone wants to experiment.

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#44
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#45

Thanks for the pointer...

#46

I’m just so impressed with how hard you guys work on improving channels!! Just setup the Pluto Docker and now am looking at other cool things to do. Will this only work with iOS or Apple TV devices not android/ fire tv?

#48

Currently it only works with the beta releases for Apple clients.

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#49

I think this is a netflix bug. If you search on Apple TV for Cobra Kai, then click Open in Netflix in TV app, it opens Netflix but doesn't go to the show.

This link format works for Amazon prime:

aiv://aiv/watch?gti=amzn1.dv.gti.c2ba94ad-acb1-8795-2465-9fc1714f0238
aiv://aiv/watch?asin=B0832BVBKP

#50

Thank you so much for this feature - great way to integrate my recorded, ripped and purchased iTunes Media collections. Working perfectly for Movies. Now got it working for TV as well, after I remembered how to structure as Show > Season # > ## EpisodeName.strmlnk

One thing that doesn't work for TV series using this approach is there is no artwork available per episode - I guess for 'normal' TV series imports you're using a screenshot captured from the video which obviously doesn't work here, and I guess there's no episode art from the provider for these shows. In those circumstances, I think it would be preferable to have the show artwork (which is working fine) replicated per episode rather than seeing the broken image link in the web UI or the placeholder image in the iOS / tvOS UI.

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#51

Just tried adding purchased episodes from a different show and episode art working fine for those so I guess it's just where the episode art is missing from the provider that this is an issue. Also I had one a show imported from ripped DVDs which I had previously added with one episode which I couldn't rip from the DVD as it was damaged. I purchased just that episode from iTunes and added the strmlnk file right in the folder structure with the rest of the episodes and it appears collated in the UI right where it should be like a charm. Excellent! This approach also works nicely where I got the whole box set on DVD and ripped it then later purchased a Christmas special or much later episode on iTunes

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#52

In the latest TestFlight build, http links for HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+ and Amazon PRIME are all confirmed working. You can get these links from demo.guidebox.com

#53

HBO Max movie links added here: https://github.com/maddox/channels-strmlnks/tree/main/movies/hbo_max

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#54

Amazon Prime and Hulu movies are up there now

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#55

What process are you using to add them in bulk. I need to create a different version since there are regional differences in Prime and Netflix libraries

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#56

I can look at breaking them out by region.

I just sniffed the endpoints used at reelgood. I’m not sure how many regions they support.

#57

Stream link support is now available on Android in the latest beta (1.20.0014).

#58

Thanks they seem to support US and UK. I dont want you to have to create regions and have to maintain all of them. I'll look into the options for Australia

#59

Stellar work! Do you think you could do TV shows on these sites as well?